Zheng Guotai's surprise was completely expected by Gao Jingshi, because Gao Jingshi was very clear about the performance of the Zheng siblings in the original history. As for the political level of their siblings, Gao Jingshi could only give a two-word evaluation: Haha.
The greatest ability of Concubine Zheng is to maintain her honor and favor in front of the emperor for decades. This is certainly a very powerful ability, but it is a pity that all her abilities are limited to this. There is another equally important ability.
She has not even scratched the surface of her ability, that is: how to use such honor with maximum efficiency.
For thousands of years in China, there have been countless favored concubines in the harem, but not many people can really take advantage of it. Being arrogant based on favor is the stupidest form, but there are many favored harem concubines.
This is all the concubine knows.
Throughout the history of Chinese dynasties, the harem has always been an arena where power and gain were fought to the death. In this arena, apart from the theoretically transcendent emperor, there are generally only three types of people:
The first type is a capable person with ambition and brains, such as Wu Zetian; the second type is an ordinary person who has no ambitions, no brains, and keeps to himself. This type of person generally does not have a name in the history books, and even if it does, it is only due to his status.
records; the third type is an ambitious but brainless fool. In Gao Pragmatic's eyes, Concubine Zheng basically falls into this category.
There were many major events in the Wanli Dynasty in the original history that attracted much attention in later generations. One of the most famous political events was the dispute over the country. Most ministers in the civil service group supported Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, who was of humble origin, as the crown prince, while Wanli favored Zheng Zheng.
The imperial concubine's son, the third son of the emperor, Zhu Changxun, clearly wanted to abolish the eldest son and establish the younger one. Both parties spent at least fifteen years on this matter, which finally ended with Zhu Changluo being established as the prince and the victory of the civil servant group.
What is the concept of fifteen years? In this era, fifteen years is equivalent to a generation reaching adulthood!
For such a long time, Concubine Zheng’s mother and son have been deeply favored by Zhu Yijun, and her determination to abolish the elder and establish the younger one has been so firm. Concubine Zheng actually failed to seize the opportunity to help her son become the crown prince. What do you think?
All cast serious doubts on her ability.
The ministers at that time rushed one after another to fight for Zhu Changluo, risking being punished with a cane, dismissed from office, and even imprisoned for questioning. But miraculously, no one spoke for Concubine Zheng and her son.
Of course, compared to other dynasties, the integrity of officials in the Ming Dynasty was indeed more admirable at certain times. Many officials dared to confront the emperor over principled issues such as morality, etiquette, and justice.
However, politics is politics, and what it is fundamentally about is not morality and etiquette, but interests, and only interests.
Although there are noble gentlemen in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, most of them are profit-seeking, unscrupulous and opportunistic villains. In fact, the ministers of the court are far from being a piece of iron, although they are related to the current debate between practical learning and spiritual learning.
They are different, but at that time, the three parties of Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang were fighting against each other, and the intensity was not necessarily less intense than it is now.
From a highly pragmatic perspective, one of the simplest ways to deal with this is that Concubine Zheng only needs to take advantage of the favor of her mother and son and use the contradictions between the three parties to win over one of them and divide and eliminate the other two parties.
, gradually cultivate and strengthen your power in the court, why worry about failure to achieve great things?
Taking a step back, even if the force chosen by Concubine Zheng to cultivate is not strong in itself, under the unique system of the Ming Dynasty, as long as it still exists in the court, it can still achieve great things.
For example, when Sejong Zhu Houcong was elected emperor from Prince Xingxian, he was completely alone. However, he used Zhang Cong and Gui E, two middle- and lower-level officials, to charge into the court and completely defeated Yang Tinghe.
The huge civil servant group led by Yang Shen and his son won the final victory in the "Great Ceremony" incident.
What does this mean? It means that for the imperial power, as long as there are people in the court who support, it is not difficult to get things done. Even if the people who support are small and weak, it doesn't matter, because the official hat is ultimately the emperor's final say. He wants to give you a big deal.
Yes, you can get a big one.
Unfortunately, I don’t know whether Concubine Zheng doesn’t understand this, or she understands it but can’t do it. Anyway, those various parties who usually fight to the death for their personal interests or the interests of small groups are now facing the issue of establishing a crown prince.
They actually made a concerted effort to confront Concubine Zheng, and they did not hesitate to put their precious lives on the line, which they had only obtained after studying hard for ten or twenty years.
If it is said that the ministers at that time sincerely believed in the principle of "establishing the elders rather than the young" and sacrificed everything to safeguard this principle, it is absolutely a lie. The purpose of political struggle is either to safeguard personal interests or to
Protecting the interests of the group - unless everyone is a time-traveler, like Gao Pragmatic, he will naturalize his actions from a historical perspective. Even Gao Pragmatic, he also considers his own interests at the same time.
Therefore, there is one and only one reason for this situation: the ministers simply cannot see the benefits to themselves of Zhu Changxun succeeding to the throne. In other words, the mother and son of Princess Zheng are not worthy of the efforts of the ministers.
Concubine Zheng has been favored in the palace for so many years, but she is so bad under the scrutiny of the outer court. She is considered a talent.
As for Zheng Guotai, this man's performance in the original history was... honest and honest.
What is Lao Shi Ba Jiao? It means that when the emperor asks him to cooperate in acting, he will cooperate with the emperor in acting honestly; when the ministers invite him to go to the throne to ask the emperor to establish a prince early, he will follow the ministers to the throne honestly.
Ah...where do you stand?
Of course, his attitude is not necessarily "honest", it may just be that he is simply stupid and easy to fool.
At this moment, Zheng Guotai was perfectly demonstrating his tendency to fool. Being cheated by Gao Pragmatic, he was immediately shocked and became restless.
He asked Gao pragmatically, "How do you say this?" Gao pragmatically, instead of answering, shook his head slightly, smiled, picked up the last bit of coffee and drank it in one gulp, pursing his mouth as if tasting it.
Zheng Guotai seemed to have some manners when he came in before, but that was actually just a superior mentality born out of thinking that Gao Pragmatic was in trouble, but now his true form was immediately revealed. Seeing Gao Pragmatic, he didn't answer, and quickly said
He begged and asked: "Da Situ, for...for the sake of the emperor..."
Gao pragmatic suddenly interrupted him and said: "Uncle Guo, what did you originally plan to say to the main department here?"
"Uh... Originally, I originally planned to talk to Da Situ about... joining forces, joining forces."
"Hahahaha, join forces?" Gao Pingshi asked knowingly: "What kind of deal does Uncle Guo have his sights on? It's easy to talk about, and you don't necessarily need to talk to the headquarters to talk about it. Jinghua already has a secretariat..."
"No, no, Da Situ, you have misunderstood." Zheng Guotai said hurriedly: "It's not about joining forces to do business... Hey, can we call it joining forces to do business? If you are willing to give the Zheng family a hand, I, the Zheng family, can do any business.
I'm willing to buy shares! However, Cathay Pacific came here today to bother me, and the original intention was to refer to the recent days of the imperial court... As you know, my sister can still say a few words in front of the emperor..."
Gao Pragmatic then said with a "sudden look on his face": "Oh, are you talking about the crowning of the imperial envoys to the north and south of Jinyiwei, the resignations, and the vacancy of the Ministry of Personnel? To be honest, these things are related to
The main department doesn’t have much to do with it. The main department is now focused on the central finance, so how can we have the free time to ask about those things?”
Zheng Guotai obviously didn't believe it, but he couldn't directly question it, so he had to say: "But, didn't you also recommend Li Wenquan to be the commander of the Jinyi Guards?"
"Uncle Guo, where did you hear the gossip? The person who recommended Li Wenquan was Wang Zhizhen. Although he and the Benbu Tang are relatives, he is the envoy of Jinyiwei North Town, and what he said is also Jinyiwei's business, and the Benbutang
As one of the six officials, how could he overstep his authority and interfere with the security affairs?" Gao Pingshi looked surprised when he said this. If it weren't for the fact that his words were so unbelievable, Zheng Guotai would have almost believed it just by looking at him.
Believe it or not, at the moment Gao Pragmatic pushed back and refused to admit it at all, it was difficult for Zheng Guotai to continue. He thought for a while and then said: "Well, although Da Situ has no intention of interfering, the foreign court has already done this after all.
There has been a lot of discussion, and Cathay Pacific understands that you are staying behind closed doors this time because of this matter, so it can be seen that you have been affected to some extent."
"Yes." Gao Pragmatic admitted frankly this time, but he immediately went on: "But with the emperor's wisdom, he will be able to easily understand the inside story and not be instigated by traitors to cause injustice to his ministers. Of course, the emperor's concubine and the country
I appreciate my uncle's kindness."
When Gao Pragmatic answered like this, Zheng Guotai was completely embarrassed.
Before he came to meet Gao Pragmatic, Concubine Zheng sent a close associate to contact him and analyze the current situation for him. To put it simply, Concubine Zheng believed that this period was an extremely rare political low for Gao Pragmatic. If
Gao Jingshi clings to various powers and refuses to let go of influence. No one knows what moves the emperor will make in the future. But even if Gao Jingshi's holy family is not completely destroyed, it will at least be greatly affected. At that time, Princess Zheng stood still and could not do anything.
It is precisely because in that situation, only Gao Pragmatic's own approach is critical. Whether others want to help or add insult to injury, it actually doesn't make much sense.
After Gao Jingshi responded by delegating power and pushed Li Wenquan out, Concubine Zheng judged that Gao Jingshi would be fine this time. However, she thought that Gao Jingshi himself might not be so sure yet - after all
Wang Zhizhen's remarks have not been approved by the emperor, and the impeachment against Gao Pragmatic behind closed doors has not been alleviated. Instead, it has continued. Even the emperor only issued an imperial edict this time to comfort him and persuade him to take matters into his own hands.
.
If the emperor's reaction was to ordinary ministers, there wouldn't be anything wrong with it. Because in most cases the emperor would wait until the disputes in the outer court were over, and he would understand the truth through watching these disputes before making a decision.
: Either issue a decree to instruct the impeached minister to slander an important minister, or adopt impeachment and allow the impeached minister to resign.
But for Gao Pragmatic, this is the first time he has enjoyed this kind of "ordinary treatment". In the past when he was impeached, the emperor immediately issued orders to severely punish those who "slandered ministers", and even directly demoted officials and released them until they were imprisoned.
.
This time, Gao Pragmatic did not enjoy such extraordinary preferential treatment. According to Concubine Zheng's understanding, Gao Pragmatic should be very uneasy. Therefore, Concubine Zheng decided to "provide help in times of need" and sent her brother Zheng Guotai to contact Gao Pragmatic and "join forces"
”.
Concubine Zheng’s plan was to be responsible for blowing the wind in front of the emperor, so that the emperor could deal with those annoying officials earlier, and strive to be high-minded and pragmatic;
Gao Pangshi was responsible for counterattack and attacked Wang Xijue and others. The reason why Concubine Zheng considered Wang Xijue as the first target was because Wang Xijue was the mastermind behind the "early rectification of the country's foundation". In contrast, Shen Shi
Instead, they just followed "booing".
In addition, this time Gao Pragmatic was impeached, Princess Zheng also did some research and found that most of the people who impeached him had some relationship with Wang Xijue, so she thought Gao Pragmatic would be happy to follow her suggestions.
However, when Zheng Guotai arrived in front of Gao Pragmatic, he discovered that his sister and his judgment were completely wrong. Not only was Gao Pragmatic not worried about his situation at all, he even believed that the Zheng family was in imminent disaster.
After a few words, Zheng Guotai was completely at a loss: it seemed impossible to continue to strive for "joining forces" with Gao Pragmatic according to the original plan, but without this prerequisite, seeking Gao Pragmatic's guidance as to why the Zheng family was in disaster seemed to be at risk.
Nothing is given in exchange.
Fortunately, Gao Pragmatic was very "understanding". When he saw Zheng Guotai standing on the spot, he smiled slightly and said: "Uncle, some people in the outer court are currently launching officials to attack the main hall. In fact, they are diverting attention. They hope to use this matter as an example.
A cover to achieve an ulterior conspiracy - Uncle Guo might as well guess what this conspiracy is?"
"Guotai is stupid, please ask Da Situ to give some advice." Zheng Guotai was very self-aware and replied immediately.
Gao pragmatic smiled and said slowly: "At present, the matter between the DPRK and China regarding the country's foundation..."
As soon as he heard the word "国本", Zheng Guotai immediately sat up straight, his nervousness palpable.
Gao pragmatic pretended not to see it and continued: "...Actually, there are only two factions. One faction insists on establishing a chief, that is, establishing the emperor's eldest son as the crown prince. The specific people must be very clear to my uncle, so there is no need for me to say more.
The other faction, headed by Honbudo, believed that the emperor was in his prime, so there was no need to be too anxious about the selection of the crown prince. On the one hand, the queen was still young, so there was no chance of giving birth to a legitimate son, and the eldest son of the emperor was weak. If something unfortunate happened in the future...
…Anyway, it will be very difficult to handle.
The two factions were evenly matched in the past, and because of Dinghai's imperial investigation, the wave of "early rectification of the country's roots" had been covered up. Now the Honbu Hall is closed, but outside because of some people who have little to do with the Honbu Hall
They are constantly fighting over each other's affairs. With my uncle's wisdom, can't he still see what their intentions are?"
Although the "wisdom of the country's uncle" is almost negligible, Gao Pragmatic talked about it to such an extent that Zheng Guotai, even a second-rate fool, could tell where the trouble was.
He stood up suddenly in shock, the hairs all over his body stood on end, and even his voice was a little out of shape: "They want to build a plank road to cross Chencang secretly. They will first use these noisy things to force the great Situ to not come forward, and then they will talk about the 'early rectification of the country'!"
After Uncle Guo said these words, his legs suddenly became weak again. He slumped back on the chair and murmured: "It's over, it's over, if Da Situ can't come out and take matters into his own hands, who can stop Wang Xi...
Mr. Wangge?"
Gao pragmatic thought that when it got to this level, he would say, "I will go back and report to my sister, and she will immediately persuade the emperor to issue an edict to ask Da Situ to come out and take matters into his own hands." Who knew that he would react like this? What a mess.
I can't hold myself up to the wall.
Unfortunately, Gao Pragmatic couldn't take the initiative to ask for it, so he had to change his approach and said: "Now that the uncle knows the problem, it is better to report it to the imperial concubine earlier... Maybe the imperial concubine has some clever ideas."
"Ah, yes, yes, I have to tell sister earlier." Zheng Guotai stood up quickly, but this time he finally remembered to bow pragmatically to Gao Gao and said, "Thank you so much for the advice, Cathay...
Sister and Chang Xun thanked Master Situ and said goodbye."
Gao pragmatic stood up and returned the gift this time, nodded and said: "Uncle Guo, go slowly... Gao Mo, give me a gift for Uncle Guo." After that, he walked Zheng Guotai to the door of the room.
Zheng Guotai was flattered and said repeatedly: "If you don't dare to work, Da Situ, Da Situ will stay, Da Situ will stay."
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